In their seventh Year
by svc
Summary: Hermione, Harry and Ron are all grown up.
1. The night before September 1st

Chapter 1 – The night before, September 1st  
  
Knock, knock  
  
Hermione jumped, dragging herself out of her daydream about Hogwarts and her friends and her last year that she would be spending in Hogwarts.  
  
"Come in," she said  
  
"Hey sweetie, are you all packed for tomorrow?" asked her mum  
  
"I just need to gather up my spare quills and parchment, but everything else is ready," Hermione replied  
  
"That's good because you will have an early start in the morning and there will be no time to pack anything then," said her mum  
  
"O.k. mum, don't worry I'll be packed before you know it."

"Right," said her mum and she left the room.  
  
Hermione drifted back into her daydream. She was in the great hall, talking to Harry and Ron about her summer then someone called her name, except she had never heard them call her "Hermione" before. Malfoy, she thought, what does he want?  
  
"Hermione, I need to speak to you." Malfoy said  
  
"What about?" question Hermione  
  
"I'll tell you in the piece and quiet of our common room. Now come on," he said and he took her hand and pulled her up from her seat.  
  
"Oh yea I forgot we were sharing the same common room," she said  
  
They suddenly stopped in front of an old picture of what seemed to be a very batty witch holding an umbrella, with wings, upside down.  
  
"Password," said the witch, acknowledging their presence.  
  
Hermione didn't know the password yet, but Malfoy did and he let her get into the common room. After crawling through the portrait hole, Hermione appeared in a, somewhat, smaller but defiantly more modernised common room.  
  
"Ahh, a whole common room for just the Head Boy and Girl, how splendid." said Hermione  
  
"Isn't it great?" asked Malfoy  
  
"Yes great, now, what did you want to talk about?"  
  
"Well, Hermione, I............" started Malfoy  
  
"And why do you keep calling me Hermione?" she said, butting in  
  
"Well that's your name isn't it?"  
  
"Yea, but, you never called me Hermione before." She said, "Why start now?"  
  
"One question at a time please!" said Malfoy, "Now where was I? Ahh yes well I think that this year well, its different isn't it but I mean this year you are so much more.................."  
  
"HERMIONE, TEA IS READY!" yelled her mum from downstairs.  
  
"Darn it," mumbled Hermione, "Even thought it was a day dream, I will never know what Malfoy thought about me.  
  
She picked up some quills and a bit of parchment, set them in her trunk and hurried down to dinner.


	2. On the Train

Chapter 2 – On the Train  
  
Hermione woke with a start the next morning. She couldn't wait to go back to school and to see Harry and Ron again. She got dressed, and just before she ran downstairs to get a quick breakfast; she walked over to her mirror. She had changed, not drastically, but she did look different from what she looked like at the end of her 6th year. She had gained the last of her curves and she felt an awful lot more grown up than she ever had.  
  
Within an hour, she was getting on the train to take her to Kings Cross station. She arrived at Kings Cross at 10:30 and she boarded the Hogwarts express at 10:45.  
  
She lugged her trunk into an empty compartment and sat down on a seat at the window.  
  
All of a sudden, she heard raised voices coming from down the corridor, her face lit up at the sound of the shouting people.  
  
"IT'S NOT FUNNY! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF YOU THOUGHT YOU FOUND A FEW GALLEONS ON THE GROUND, BUT WHEN YOU GO TO SPEND THEM THEY BLOW UP, LEAVING YOUR FACE LOOKING LIKE IT HASN'T BEEN WASHED IN ABOUT 15 YEARS?"  
  
"Well if you put it that way, I suppose, but still it didn't happen to me though did it? It happened to you, so it was incredibly funny!"  
  
"LOOK JUST SHUT UP, WILL YOU? NOW I'M GOING TO LEAVE MY TRUNK DOWN, THEN I'M GOING TO THE TOILET TO WASH THIS STUFF OFF! OH MY GOD................ WHAT IF THIS STUFF DOESN'T COME OFF?"  
  
Two seventh year boys appeared in the doorway of the compartment, just as the train left the station. One was tall, dark and had a muscular body from all the Quidditch that he played. The lightening bolt on his head was there as always. The other was taller than the first one, he had vivid red hair and he defiantly had more freckles than the last time Hermione saw him, although they were barely visible under what seemed to be ink.  
  
"Ron, what happened to you?" Hermione asked looking at his face and trying to fight down a fit of giggles.  
  
"Oh, just something that seems to amuse everyone but me! I don't get the joke do you?" Ron replied sarcastically  
  
"No, seriously, what happened?" asked Hermione  
  
"Well earlier on when we were walking to get to the end of my street, to come here, I found three Galleons on the ground, so I picked them up...." Ron started  
  
"Did it not occur to you that there might be something wrong with them, I mean, who drops three Galleons on the ground and doesn't hear them hitting the ground. Couldn't you tell they had been put there on purpose?" said Hermione butting in  
  
"No actually it did not occur to me, anyway do you want to know what happened or not?" snapped Ron  
  
"Yes, sorry, carry on," urged Hermione  
  
"Right well, I decided that I was going to buy something from the sweet shop, you know the one on the platform, well I went to pay for a big packet of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans and box of Chocolate Frogs, and the two Galleons that I was using to pay for them, exploded ink in my face, then I had to put the sweets back and I chucked the other Galleon down the drain!" explained Ron sighing  
  
"Not such a good start to your day, huh?" asked Hermione  
  
"You can say that again!"  
  
"Anyway, how are you?" Hermione asked, realising she hadn't greeted them yet and she stood up and gave Harry a hug.  
  
"I'm fine thanks," Harry said and hugged her back.  
  
"Right, I'm away to the toilets, to try to get this stuff off," said Ron remembering the ink on his face, after he broke apart from Hermione.  
  
"I have a meeting with Professor McGonagall and the Head Boy in 5 minutes, I had better get going. Sorry Harry but I'm afraid I'll have to leave you," said Hermione  
  
"I'll be back as soon as I get all this bloody ink off my face. Does anyone know how long how long it will take?" Ron asked  
  
"The longer you leave it, the longer it will take," explained Hermione, who was half way through the door.  
  
"Oh, I better run then," said Ron, and with that he rushed out of the compartment, behind Hermione, and ran down the corridor to the toilets. 


	3. Rachael and Richard

Chapter 3 – Rachael and Richard  
  
Harry sat alone in the compartment. He decided to move over to the seat that Hermione was sitting in, so that he could look out the window. A minute later a tall, dark haired, brown-eyed boy along with a pretty, brown haired, blue-eyed girl, appeared in the doorway. Harry looked at them, he thought that they must have been about the same age as him, but he had never seen them before.  
  
"Hi," the boy said, "I'm Richard."  
  
"Hey, I'm Harry," said Harry  
  
"Hi, I'm Rachael, and Richards' my twin brother. We were wondering if we could share this compartment with you as everywhere else is full up?"  
  
"Yea sure," said Harry, staring at her, and he gestured a hand towards the empty seats.  
  
"Thanks," said Rachael, and she sat down on the seat opposite Harry.  
  
Richard took a seat beside Rachael.  
  
"How come I have never seen you before?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes off Rachael.  
  
"We transferred here from America. Our dad got a job at the Ministry of Magic and our mum originally comes from here so, we left our old school and our friends and we came here," explained Richard  
  
"Ah right, well you will make loads of friends in no time at all. Mostly everyone at Hogwarts is friendly," Harry said, breaking his eye contact with Rachael as he turned to face Richard, "There are a few really horrible people but I'll tell you who they are later."  
  
Harry returned his gaze to Rachael.  
  
She caught him looking at her and she gave him a huge, sparkling smile  
  
He smiled back at her. He would never have thought that one girls smile would brighten the rest of his day.

* * *

Hey  
  
Sorry it took me so long to get this and the second chapter out but I'm just back from my holiday and the computer in the hotel didn't have Microsoft word so I couldn't write it.  
  
It's my shortest chapter so far but I wanted to introduce Rachael and Richard into the story to see if they can help me make the story any better.  
  
If anyone has any suggestions, to help make my writing better or anything, please let me know.  
  
Lots of love  
  
Sarah


	4. The Malfoy Test

Chapter 4 – The Malfoy Test 

Harry, still smiling, turned to look at the doorway, when he heard Hermiones' voice.

"You will never guess who the Head Boy is this ye..." she said, stopping when she saw that Harry had company that wasn't Ron.

"Hey Hermione, this is Rachael and Richard, they transferred here from America," said Harry, "Rachael, Richard, this is Hermione Granger, she is one of my best friends."

"Hi," said Rachael politely, although looking at Harry fondly

"Hey," said Richard, "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Hermione replied

"Sorry, what were you going to say, Hermione," asked Harry

"Oh right," said Hermione, "Well guess who this years Head Boy is."

"Um.............Malfoy?" guessed Harry

"How'd you know?" asked Hermione sarcastically

"No really, is it Malfoy?" asked Harry

"Yep," said Hermione sighing

"I can't believe it. How?"

"Well I don't know do I, but it's probably another bought position."

"No, it can't be, can it?"

"Excuse me but who is Malfoy and why is it so hard to believe that he is Head Boy?" asked Rachael

"I'm going to tell you about the most horrible student that Hogwarts has ever had," said Harry

"Err...Harry, don't you think that you are being a little harsh?" asked Hermione

"No I don't! Just think in first year he sneaked on Hagrid and us with Norbert, which meant that Norbert had to leave Hagrid, we got detention and 150 points were taken off Gryffindor.

In our second year he called you a mudblood, which left you very upset and Ron burping up slugs for hours after he tried to curse Malfoy for calling you one.

In third year, he turned up at the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, dressed like a Dementor to try and make me fall off my broom, and lose the game.

In our fourth year, he made the 'Support CEDRIC DIGGORY – the REAL Hogwarts Champion!' and 'Potter Stinks' badges and wore them to all the tasks.

In fifth year he made those "Weasley is our King" badges and songs, and he sang the songs at every Gryffindor Quidditch match, to make Ron feel more nervous so he would miss the goals.

Last year, he nearly killed you. When revising the cheering charm, he put too much of everything in it. You just had to be partnering him that day, because Professor Flitwick thought that he could learn something if you sat beside him in class, and Malfoy knew that it wouldn't wear off until lunch, so as the lunch bell rang, he lead you up to the top of the west tower and nearly had you jumping off it. Of course you thought that it would be the funniest thing in the world if you did jump but luckily Ron and I noticed that you were missing, and we found you just as you were about to dive off the tower and die," said Harry, counting off the years and the things that Malfoy did on his fingers.

"He makes people feel bad about their families as well," explained Hermione, to Rachael and Richard, while shuddering at the thought of what happened to her last year, "We can give you a Malfoy test if you would like to see how he will treat you."

"Are your parents dead?" asked Harry

"No," replied Rachael

"Are they muggles?" asked Hermione

"No," said Richard

"Are you poor?" asked Harry

"Em...No," replied Rachael

"Are you pure blood?" asked Hermione

"As far as I know, yes," said Richard

"Well then, you have nothing to worry about, Malfoy won't have anything to upset you with," said Harry

"Ah, ok, about all those questions..." started Rachael, but Harry cut her off.

"Malfoy sometimes teases me because my parents are dead. Hermione gets teased because her parents are muggles. Ron's family are pure blood, and they are a lovely family but there is a shortage when it comes to money, and he gets teased for that." said Harry, answering Rachael's unfinished question.

"That's really evil," said Rachael, "I can see why you don't like Malfoy."

"We have been enemies since our first year and I hardly think that this year it is going to change," Harry said

Fifteen minutes later, Ron appeared in the doorway, with no signs of ink anywhere.

"I see that you got it all off," Hermione said

"Yea, it took longer than I thought though," Ron replied

"Hey Ron, this is Rachael and Richard, they transferred here from America," said Harry in an orderly fashion, "Rachael, Richard, this is Ron Weasley, my other best friend."

"Hi," said Ron

"Hello," said Rachael and Richard, together.


End file.
